Memories
by Chibi Orochi-kun
Summary: A breeze blew past, bringing with it the scent of blood and decay. As it blew, it moved his spiky locks, jingling the bells upon their ends." R&R plz, this is my first Bleach fic.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, it is copyright of Tite Kubo.**

**A/N: I know... I know... I must update... Trust me, I wrote this fic back in December. I couldn't post it till now because I entered it into a fanfiction contest. It got second place in the Short Drama catagory. Yay me!!!**

Memories

A gentle breeze passed over the quiet hillside. Blades of green grass clashed together bringing the earth to life. Some blades crashed against stone; not denting it in the least. The stones stood strong against the wind and the grass not bending to either. They stood silent; reminders of the past the Soul Society had endured. As the breeze settled, the sounds of grass crunching could be heard as footsteps drew closer. The sounds halted before one of the solemn stones. The figure stood before the stone just as silent.

The figure was a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties. As she stood, eyes downcast, the wind picked up again; picking up her long pink tresses, making them dance around her. As her hair fluttered the jingling of bells echoed with them. As the wind died down the bells stopped. She sighed as her pink hair settled back around her, two locks falling over her shoulders to settle around her ample chest. The front of her soul reapers uniform was open, exposing the wrappings that held her breasts in place. She shifted slightly, the bells matching her movement. She moved her left hand forward, in it, she grasped a strap. Bending over slightly, she let the strap lie on the ground, the clattering of her sword scabbard followed.

Standing straight again she looked to the stone before her with one crimson eye, the other hidden behind black leather. It had been years since she had last visited this spot, this stone, and she was beginning to regret coming this time. Her throat dried up at the thought of why she was there. She never wanted to admit why. She had been a foolish child back then, a weakness she hated herself for. Though the mission was successful, she had still lost. Staring down at the silent stone, she relinquished herself to memories.

It had been a bloody battle; many were lost on both sides. But in the end, the orange haired soul reaper from the real world managed to deal the killing blow. The traitorous captain fell, just has his partners had a year before. She watched through her childish crimson eyes, finding it amazing that they had won. She surveyed the battle field, she had seen worse, much worse. Her eyes scanned over the broken bodies of the enemy arrancar, a feeling of pride entering her when she spotted the one she had dispatched. She continued looking until her innocent eyes settled on a familiar form.

Her eyebrows curved in concern as she walked towards the fallen captain. His exposed chest rose and fell slowly, shallowly. His clothes were red from the various wounds that decorated his body, none had stopped bleeding. His one eye was closed, blood trailing from his forehead sealing it shut. Scattered around his head lay the once tall spikes of hair, the small round balls at the ends were the only things that kept them together. A few feet away lay his zanpakto, it too was covered in crimson blood, most of it the enemies. She kneeled down next to him and stared, watching his breathing. After a moment, she broke the silence.

"The fight's over." She paused, no response. "Ichi beat Four-eyes." Still there was no response.

At his lack of response, she became worried. Leaning over his chest, she put one of her small, child like, hands on his face. This seemed to stir him. He turned his head in her direction; she was sitting on his blind side. He looked at her, eye half mast. He looked tired, she thought. She gave him a big smile.

"We won! Ichi beat Four-eyes!" She exclaimed in happiness.

His response was a choking laugh. It seemed to strain him, but he managed a smirk.

"I knew he could do it..." His voice was a gruff whisper.

"Yup, now we just have to get you better! Then you can fight him too!"

He tried to laugh at her statement, but it turned into a fit of coughs. He turned his head away from her, still coughing. Concerned, she leaned towards him again, saying his name softly. After a moment, his coughing stopped. He turned his head back to her, looking even more tired then before. Blood trickled from his lower lip, he had coughed up blood. This caused her to worry more. Perhaps she should run to get the captain of the medical division. She made to stand but his voice stopped her.

"Quit worryin', I'll be fine." His voice sounding hoarse.

She smiled. "That's right! No matter how many times you're struck, you'll always get back up!"

He smirked at her words. At the time, she thought it was because she was right, but that was not the case. She now knew that he had smirked because he knew she was to be proven wrong, but he felt it best not to tell her so at the time. It was not his place to ruin her innocence with such harsh words.

They remained there for a while just enjoying the aftermath of the battle. During that time, she never left his side. She watched with growing concern as his clothes turned more crimson, as his one eye began to droop shut before fluttering open quickly only to droop again. All these things caused a feeling deep within her to stir. Several times, she fought the urge to disobey him and run for help, but she could never bring herself to. Now that she looked back, even if she had run for help, it would have been too late.

She tried to make conversation with him during the wait. First to tell him how the orange haired soul reaper had defeated their enemy; he only seemed half interested. Another time she tried to tell him about how she had defeated one of the arrancar. Despite her initial thought, he did not seem impressed. Perhaps he was, but he was too weak to show it.

His bleeding hadn't stopped, this worried her even more. His breathing was becoming shallower, his eye fluttering closed more frequently. This was wrong, something was wrong. Her resolve thickened by concern, she began to stand, the strap of her zanpakto scabbard securely in her hand. She braced herself for another of his ways of distracting her and getting her to stay, but it never came. Looking down at him, she found his attention on the sky. His eye was glazed with thought as he stared straight ahead of him. She wondered what he could be thinking about, but shook those thoughts away. She had a mission to get him help; she would not let minor curiosities distract her.

She was only gone for about 15 minutes; she dared not journey far from him. In her short search, she found no members of the medical division. It was possible they were all busy elsewhere on the battlefield. Defeated, she returned to his side. He had not moved in her time away. He was still staring ahead of him, into nothingness. Again, she wondered what he was thinking. This time, however, she let herself ponder it, before voicing her question to him.

"What'cha thinking 'bout?"

It took a few moments, but he responded.

"Nothin'." His voice was a whisper now.

Thinking his change in voice was due to thirst, she swiftly pulled out a canteen from her soul reaper robes. Opening the lid a bit, she offered it to him. He looked at the canteen, then her, before scoffing. He turned his head away, his hidden eye now to her.

"Put that away, I don't need it." Despite it being a whisper, she felt force behind his words.

She did as she was told and put her canteen away. She stood, not feeling like sitting on the bloody ground. Her childish eyes watched him, his head still turned. After a few moments, he began coughing again. Her eyes were wide as she watched him hurl more blood from his throat. She knew this wasn't good, but there was no help to be found. Her heart beat a million miles a minute as she watched him. From her vantage point, she could finally see the damage done to him. Seeing this, her heart beat even faster as tears began to fill her eyes.

Hearing her sniffle, he turned his eye back to her. He raised an eyebrow at her teary eyed face. Her nose was red, she knew it was; her eyes were puffy, she had been rubbing them to keep her tears at bay. His tired face gained an angry appearance to it as he scowled at her.

"What'cha cryin' for? There ain't nothing to cry 'bout now!" His voice seemed to return to normal, if only for that instant.

She sniffled and nodded, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. He scoffed.

"There ain't nothing to cry 'bout." He repeated himself, softly this time.

She nodded again, despite her personal thoughts on the situation. She didn't want this to happen; she should have gone to get help sooner. It was too late now, they both knew it. Her tears had not stopped; they merely became silent as reality settled in. She was the lieutenant of her division, she had to be strong. There was no time for her to act her age now, not in front of her captain, not later in front the rest of their division. Now she had to restrain herself, she could cry all she wanted later on in private. Now was not the time to act like a child. His voice broke through her internal pep talk.

She looked at him a moment, cluelessness apparent on her face. Grunting, he repeated himself.

"Get my sword."

She nodded before walking over to the discarded blade. Grabbing it by the hilt with her free hand, she brought it back to him. She set it in his limp hand, the fingers slowly moving to grasp it. Sluggishly, he moved his damaged arm to bring his blade into his line of sight. He held it there shakily.

"What'cha gonna do?" She asked.

A response came in the form of the clang of metal against earth. The zanpakto lay on his other side, the hilt sliding from his lax fingers. His arm stretched across his abdomen, laying where it had fallen. His head was turned away slightly, his one eye closed. The blood had finally stopped, as his heart came to rest. The shallow rise and fall of his chest became non-existent. He lay there motionless, an ominous feeling pressing down upon her. A breeze blew past, bringing with it the scent of blood and decay. As it blew, it moved his spiky locks, jingling the bells upon their ends.

Realization dawned upon her, tears flowing freely from her crimson eyes. She screamed his name in despair; the sound echoing for miles.

That had been the worst day in her life. She had lost the one she thought was undefeatable, incapable of dying; the one she looked up to as a father. On that day, she learned that no one was exempt from death, no matter what. Staring down at the stone before her, she bit her lip. Old emotions she had long since locked away were welling up again. She fisted her hands, clenching tightly onto the object she held in her right hand. Sighing in frustration, she looked back at the stone, before falling down to her knees before it.

She laid her hands on her lap, on top of the object she was holding, and bowed her head in prayer. Once she had finished, she brought her eye back up, fixing it on the name that was carved into the stone before her. Composing herself, she began to speak.

"It's been a while, I'm sorry for not visiting more often. As you can see, I've grown a bit. If it weren't for my violent nature, I'm sure all the boys would be after me. But I guess that's better then having you threatening to kill them all if they even glanced at me. Heheh… I would've loved to see that.

"We got a new captain after you left, but he didn't last long. Now Captain Yamamoto wants to promote me to captain. To be honest, I don't wanna be captain. That is your position, not mine. I like our division being captain-less. Instead of someone trying to take your place, it just feels like you're off on a long term assignment. At least, that's how it's been for me.

"I don't like to think about it, you being gone. It hurts… All these years, I had convinced myself that I would wake up in the morning and you would be there, scaring the new recruits like you used to. That things would be normal. But Byakushi snapped me out of it …

"Baldy yelled at me for some reason I don't remember. I yelled back, and said that when you got back you would beat him up. He and Feather-chan looked at me with sad eyes. I didn't like that they pitied me. He told me that you weren't coming back, that no one should know that better than me. I told him he was lying, that you were coming back. But then Byakushi just had to walk into the training grounds with Doodles.

"He had overheard our conversation and decided to put in his two cents. What he said to me hurt a lot… just like when you left… He didn't try to sugar coat it like Baldy had. It finally hit me… I ran off to my room crying. It took a while for me to come back out, I really didn't want to. You wanna know what made me though? The thought of your sour face at how weak I was being. I knew you wouldn't want me to cry over you, but move on and keep training so that one day I could surpass you. That's what made me stop crying and get back up.

"I've wasted too much time being sad over you. What's the point of being sad over something that's gonna happen anyway? It was childish of me to think that people could escape death.

"I've gotten stronger, a lot stronger. The other soul reapers say I'm just like you. The thought doesn't make me sad anymore. I'm happy that they compare me to you, it means they haven't forgotten you yet."

She paused to collect herself. Tears were beginning to gather in her crimson eyes, even the one hidden behind leather. She gently touched the leather eye patch she bore over her right eye. The same eye he covered up, with the very same eye patch. The tarnished leather felt rough against her calloused fingers.

"I wear it now, but I don't need it. Skunk man has developed better constricting devices, but I don't want 'em. When I wear your eye patch it feels like there's still a piece of you here with me, and I don't wanna lose that."

She was halted by the sounds of voices in the distance. The voices were familiar, causing her to smile.

"Seems they finally noticed I was gone. I swear Baldy and Feather-chan are slow. But I'd better go before they end up getting lost. I'm glad I came to see you, I feel a lot better now. I promise I'll come back again."

She stood, grasping the object in her right hand. Looking down at it, she smiled. She brought it up to level with her shoulders, grasping it in both hands. It unfolded itself, revealing it to be a white captain's coat. Its torn edges were familiar to her eyes. She looked back at the stone.

"It's the same one you wore, I had it cleaned up and fixed so it looked just like it did before. I would never wear another coat. This was yours; it should be passed down to the next captain. Perhaps it will grant them greatness too."

She smiled as she swung the coat around, putting her arms through the torn sleeves, before letting it settle on her shoulders. She reached back and gathered up her locks of thigh length pink hair. She pulled them out from under the coat, letting them fall back to their spots along her back. The bell at the end of each lock jingled at the motion. Finally comfortable, she turned back to the stone one last time. She placed her hand on the top of it. It's cold, ruff texture reflective of who it represented. She then let her fingers trail over the name carved into its surface.

"I'm ready to move on now… I've become captain of our division 11. I only hope I can run it as well as you did." She paused, reaching down to grasp the sash of her zanpakto's scabbard.

Standing straight, she smiled a smile reminiscent of the smiles of her youth.

"I really miss you Ken-chan… But don't worry 'bout me, I'm fine now!"

With that, she turned and began to walk away, dragging the scabbard behind her on its training wheels. Another breeze came; it tickled her skin almost playfully. She closed her eyes and smiled. For the first time since before that day, Yachiru felt happy.

"Yeah, I'm fine now."


End file.
